There has been a long existing need in the prior art to provide an electrical terminal suited for electrical connection to a flat conductor. In accordance with established practice in the prior art, a plurality of flat configuration conductors extend longitudinally in parallel relationship within an insulation sheath or jacket which is laminated and bonded to the conductors, completely encasing each individual conductor within a sheath or jacket of insulation and rigidly locating the individual conductors in precise side-by-side orientation. There have been many attempts to electrically terminate terminals to each individual flat conductor of the transmission cable exemplary one of which is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,703,604. According to one technique, the insulation sheath is removed by etching or stripping away to expose the individual conductors. Terminals are then soldered or crimped onto the individual conductors. This procedure is not successful, since hand labor is required for stripping away the insulation. The procedure is thus not suited for automatic connection of electrical terminals. According to another technique, the individual conductors are forcibly inserted into slotted plate type terminals. This technique has the advantage in that slotted plate terminals slice through the insulation jacket and electrically contact the individual conductors without a need for removing the insulation. The disadvantage of this technique is that the slotted plate terminals require a housing to hold the individual conductors within the slotted plate terminals. Also the slicing type connection weakens the mechanical gripping force of the terminals on the individual conductors, necessitating a separate clamping fixture to grip the conductors connected to the slotted plate terminals. Further, the slotted plate terminals are of necessity much wider than the width of the individual conductors, preventing use of such terminals when the conductors are closely spaced in the insulation jacket.
According to another technique of the prior art, channel shaped terminals were developed which straddle the conductors, and which penetrate through the insulation jacket, permitting the sides of the channel shaped terminals to be curled in collapsed relationship over the conductors.
Such a technique has the advantage that no cutting away of the insulation sheath is required. A plurality of terminals may be crimped to conductors which are closely spaced, since the terminals are curled in intimate contact over the periphery of the conductors. One disadvantage in the technique of the prior art, is that a desired electrical connection to the conductors could be accomplished only if the terminal were collapsed tightly over the conductor. If the thickness of the conductor or of the insulation sheath varied, the collapsed terminal would only loosely engage the conductor. More specifically, if the conductor and sheath thicknesses were too thin, the terminal would be insufficiently collapsed to successfully grip onto the conductor. In a case where the conductor or sheath thickness were too thick, the terminal could not be compressed with a sufficient force to collapse tightly over the conductor. Accordingly the terminal of the prior art is dependent upon the relative thicknesses of the conductor and insulation to provide the desired electrical connection on the conductor. It was heretofore thought that the terminal of the prior art should be fabricated from relatively thick material to allow coining of the terminal when crimped to a flat conductor. The coining operation struck out projections which were used to force penetrating lance portions of the terminal into engagement with the conductors. The penetrating lance portions provided the desired electrical connection, and the coined projections prevented the lance portions from disengaging from the conductors. The disadvantage in utilizing a relatively thick material for the terminals, is that relatively high crimping forces are required to collapse the terminal around the conductor and to create the coined portions of the terminal during crimping. Accordingly, a plurality of such terminals were applied sequentially one at a time. The required high crimping forces prevented application of a plurality of terminals simultaneously. Accordingly, even when machines applied, a plurality of terminals crimped sequentially required a large expenditure of time.